Astrophysicists at the University of Colorado’s JILA, National Institute of Science and Technology, have conducted an experiment to produce benzene the way theories have predicted it is produced in interstellar space and found it did not produce any benzene. The research by G. S. Kocheril, C. Zagorec-Marks and H. J. Lewandowski is published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Research efforts in the 1990s led to theories suggesting that ion-molecule collisions could be one of the main ways that interstellar benzene forms. Such theories are important for space research because it is believed that benzene is a precursor to the formation of interstellar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are believed to hold cosmic carbon, which is important for many reasons but mainly because of the role it might have played in the development of carbon-based lifeforms.

Testing of theories that lead to the creation of benzene in interstellar space has not been done before because of the difficulty in creating the conditions that exist in such an environment. In their paper, and during a speech at a recent symposium, the group stated that they had the equipment necessary to carry out such an experiment in their lab at JILA.